Large'ish pockets on the bubble

[robbitty]

Howdy


I get in the following position on a semi regular basis and don't really know how to play it. Any help would be appreciated.


The situation is:
It is late in a game, either on the bubble or very close to it. Your chip stack might not be the biggest but is mostly in the top 1/3 of players. There is generally 1 or more short stacks.


You are dealt TT, JJ or QQ, and the pot is unopened.


How do you play it in early, mid or late position?


What do you do if the flop comes with 1 or more over cards?

Cheers

[mhfc1987]

Everyone plays it different, but being in the bubble is just any other stage yea you got the money coming soon, but what would you do if you got AA in this stage, Having JJ or QQ you would think pre flop your ahead, so i would open shove here. With 10-10 I would probly raise 3 times the blind and see the flop. But JJ and up i would open shove, either collect blinds and ante, or youl get a caller and most likly be ahead.

IMO but everyone has there different views on this.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

One piece of advice that I read, from a pro known as BodogAri, was to try and bubble because your opponents will not let you. As a rule, players play far too tightly on and around the bubble, so much so that you can abuse them at will.

[TheAlchmizt]

Depends, are you playing to win the trny or playing to make the $$? Your best option if you want to be successful in tournaments, especially on the short stack is to fold these pairs and try and make the $$, is it online or live? Online i think it's usually easier to make the bubble because you can use time bank to your advantage, you can do it live too, but doing it every hand might get your opponents calling the clock after the 3rd or 4th time. Unless its aces, or Kings, i say fold and make the money back for your next tournament. Just try not to be on the short stack around the bubble in the next one.

[grunta0]

Depends, are you playing to win the trny or playing to make the $$? Your best option if you want to be successful in tournaments, especially on the short stack is to fold these pairs and try and make the $$, is it online or live? Online i think it's usually easier to make the bubble because you can use time bank to your advantage, you can do it live too, but doing it every hand might get your opponents calling the clock after the 3rd or 4th time. Unless its aces, or Kings, i say fold and make the money back for your next tournament. Just try not to be on the short stack around the bubble in the next one.

This is a very important point!
What is you primary goal? If it is to just make the money then fold EVERYTHING.

Personally I play to win so in these types of hands I would min raise. If you strike opposition by someone three betting or shoving then you can decide on your reads of the villain what to do.

When you are near the bubble people tend to tighten up and it is a good opportunity to build your stack.

I would never shove here with TT, JJ or QQ because the only hands that will call you are those that beat you. I also would not shove with AA, or KK because with these you want action.

Decide on what you are going to do before you bet and then just play the hand on it's merits.

[Bakuda]

trying to abuse the bubble isn't flawwed thinking, the bubble is very relevant the reason for this is that at no point before the final will difference in money be as important as the bubble in a tourney HOWEVER this doesnt take away from the fact that you've said you put him on a strong hand and you made the plan to take him of it, because it's the bubble.

Think about how often this plan needs to work to show a profit, quite a bit, now think about how you think he has a strong hand...

See where I'm coming from? Why do we do this, on the bubble again where we're putting out equity in big jeopardy for a play that seems like mostly ego to me, sorry to say.

We don't have to win every pot.